IRcsorssßisnol 
CLINICAL REPORT 
FROM 
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL, 
NEWYORK CITY 
(FORDHAM BRANCH.) 
CONTRIBUTED BY 
J. J. REILLY, A. M., M. D, REPRINTED TH £ AMERICAN GYN/ECOLOGI CAL AND OBSTETRICAL JOURNAL. 
’ SEPT., 1898. VOL XIII. No. 8. 
RESOR-BISNOL 
CLINICAL REPORT. 
BELLEVUE HOSPITAL, NEW YORK CITY, 
(Fordham Branch) 
J. J. Rkifly, A.M., M.D., 
Attending Physician Bellevue Hospital (Fordham Branch); Member Staff Harlem 
Hospital, Fordham Hospital, and of New York City Asylum for Insane; Member Bronx 
Borough Medical Society, New York City, etc., etc. 
7 o the Editor of The American Gy ri- 
ce co logical and Obstetrical Journal: 
symptoms of cerebral intoxication 
from septic poisoning had begun to 
manifest themselves. We recognized 
the fact that we had a serious case to 
deal with and immediately commenced 
the most energetic treatment. The 
colon was emptied of feces by an ounce 
of oleum ricini. The patient was 
placed upon a diet consisting of pep- 
tonized milk exclusively. The bowel 
was irrigated four times in twenty-four 
hours with a hot solution of bichlorid 
of mercury? 1 to 5000, and every 
three hours, day and night, a supposi- 
tory containing one grain of deodor- 
ized opium, one-eighth grain of the 
alcoholic extract of belladonna, and 
one-tenth grain of cocain hydrochlorat 
was introduced high into the rectum. 
This naturally made the rectal mucous 
membrane more tolerant and thus re- 
lieved the distressing tenesmus. Salol 
was administered by mouth in doses 
of 5 grains every three hours. This 
was replaced after two days by the 
exhibition once a day of large doses of 
ipecac (30 grains) given mouth 
fifteen minutes after a hypodermatic 
injection of a quarter grain of morphin 
sulphate. This plan of treatment was 
carried out for eight days altogether, 
at the expiration of which time the 
patient’s condition had slightly im- 
proved, but the fluid passages were 
still copious and ill-smelling, and, 
moreover, another symptom had arisen 
that caused no little distress. This 
was an obstinate flatus, brought about, 
no doubt, by the opium suppositories. 
It thus became evident to us that an 
Sir : 
For the past six weeks we have 
been studying the therapeutic uses of 
Resor-Bisuol, a new intestinal anti- 
septic, in the wards of Fordham Hos- 
pital, the outlying branch of Bellevue 
Hospital, covering the greater part of 
Bronx Borough. According to the 
formula submitted by its manufac- 
turers, each ico parts of Resor-Bisnol 
contain 20 parts resorcin and 52 parts 
bismuth oxid, in combination with 
antiseptic acids of the phenol ,series. 
With such a combination of tried and 
efficient therapeutic agents, we natur- 
ally expected a priori to obtain good 
results by the administration of the 
preparation and that we were not dis- 
appointed the reports of the following 
cases will attest. 
A young man, aged 25, was admit- 
ted to the hospital suffering with a 
severe and intractable diarrhoea that 
had for three weeks resisted all the 
efforts of the local physicians. He 
had numerous small painful passages 
of blood and mucus with occasional 
passages of large quantities of offen- 
sive brownish fluid containing very 
little fecal matter. There was nearly 
constant pain, and a de- 
sire to go to stool, with colic, strang- 
ury and occasional vomiting. His 
tongue was coated with a heavy 
fur. There was an elevation of temp- 
erature varying ioo° to 102.50 F. The 
prostration was marked, the heart's 
action rapid and feeble^an^-eliglit intestinal antiseptic was indicated. 
Another dose of oleum ricini was given 
and the salol was again administered 
but proved inefficient, and, was there- 
fore promptly discarded. Napthalin 
was next brought into requisition but 
met with a similar fate. So also beta- 
naphthol bismuth. It was then that 
Resor-Bisnol was tried. We found 
that the most agreeable and convenient 
way of administering it was in cachets 
of 15 grains each, in which form it is 
put up by the manufacturers, ready 
for dispensing. One cachet was given 
every three hours day and night The 
good effects were at once apparent. 
The first improvement was noticed in 
the stomach, which organ had given 
us considerable trouble throughout 
the entire course of the disease by 
its irritability. This symptom was 
promptly relieved. The next bird we 
hit was the one at which we had aimed 
our stone, namely, the flatus. It 
seemed as if the combination was 
absolutely inimical to the growth and 
development of the putrefactive micro- 
organisms present in our patient’s 
alimentary canal, for at the expiration 
of twenty-four hours not a vestige of 
the flatus was left. But our blow 
went still further. After two days the 
astringent and curative effects of the 
drug became manifest, for the diarrhoea 
began to abate to the extent that the 
patient had only three stools in twenty- 
four hours, and these were partly 
formed. The number of cachets was 
then reduced to four per day. This 
dosage was continued until conval- 
escence was established, which oc- 
curred on the sixth day after the 
administration of Resor-Bisnol had 
been commenced. The fact that struck 
us most forcibly in the results obtained 
by this preparation, and one that we 
might have surmised by a study of its 
its formula, was its singular and unique 
efficiency in disinfecting the entire gas- 
tro-intestinal canal from the cardiac 
orifice of the stomach to the ana^utlet. 
This case is described more at length 
because we consider it representative 
of a number of cases of acute and 
sub-acute gastro-intestinal affections 
in which we have obtained equally as 
good results with the remedy in ques- 
tion. A case of tubercular colitis 
treated by Resor-Bisnol seems to be 
of sufficient interest to warrant a short 
description of it here, The patient, 
a laborer about 30 years of age, had 
suffered from pulmonary tuberculois 
for about year and a half, and had 
been treated with some little success 
by the alternating use of the various 
creosote preparations, so that his gen- 
eral condition was not very much im- 
paired, when suddenly a tubercular 
colitis set in, with profuse, watery 
evacuations containing no inconsider- 
able amount of blood, some necrotic 
shreds of tissue, and undigested par- 
ticles of food. 
At the time of observation the diar- 
rhoea had lasted three months and the 
patient was very much emaciated. A 
goodly number of intestinal antisep- 
tics were administered; also, acetate 
of lead and morphine. The mineral 
acids were then tried. Nothing 
seemed to exert any real and lasting 
effect upon the course of the disease 
until Resor-Bisnol was administered. 
It was given in doses of four cachets 
a day. Owing to the nature of the 
disease it required ten days’ adminis- 
tration of the preparation before any 
marked change set in. The number 
of evacuations became diminished in 
frequency and amount, they became 
of a less offensive character, and, 
macroscopically at least, no blood 
could be discerned. The breath lost 
its offensive character, the eructations 
ceased and the stomach again toler- 
ated adequate quantities of food. The 
improvement was rapid and uninter- 
rupted until at the expiration of six- 
w'eeks’ administration of Resor-Bisnol 
the patient was entirely cured as far 
as his gastro-intestinal symptoms were concerned, and soon began to gain 
flesh and strength. 
donate was tried, but was found to be 
practically useless. Two cachets of 
Resor-Bisnol were then given and the 
vomiting did not recur until three 
hours had elapsed, when the dose was 
repeated with the same happy result. 
Two further repetitions at the same 
intervals brought an end to the vomit- 
ing. Thenceforth our case was 
treated and brought to a rapid cure 
by the following regime: Diet of 
scraped beef and hot water; i dram 
of Carlsbad salt in a tumbler of cold 
water sipped one hour before break- 
fast; Yi minim of Fowler's solution 
before each meal, and 2 cachets of 
Resor-Bisnol after each meal, the dose 
of the latter remedy being diminished 
as the improvement progressed. 
Resor-Bisnol was also administered 
in a case of typhoid fever, one cachet 
every three hours night and day. 
Here it reduced the number of stools 
per day, but in a manner quite differ- 
ent from that obtained by the use of 
opium or the ordinary astringents, for 
far from producing or increasing an 
already existing tympanites, it seems 
to counteract the process, so that our 
case was entirely free from the dis- 
tressing symptom from the beginning 
to the end of the disease. While, of 
course, we must chiefly describe the 
circumstances that there was an entire 
absence of cerebral symptoms, to the 
energetic application of the Brand 
treatment, it seemed to us that the 
antagonistic action of our intestinal 
antiseptic to the growth and develop- 
ment of the micro-organisms and the 
consequent inhibition of the produc- 
tion and absorption of their toxins, 
contributed no significant part in 
diminishing the severity of the dis- 
ease and insuring the comfort of our 
patient. 
From the report of these few cases 
the following conclusions may be 
drawn: That Resor-Bisnol exerts a 
sedative effect upon the gastrointes- 
tinal mucous membrane and is an 
efficient anti-emetic; that in virtue of 
the solubility of the resorcin in the 
preparation it is a valuable agent in 
combating gastric fermentation; thus 
preventing or relieving gastric disten- 
tion; that the anti-fermentative action 
is exerted along the entire intestinal 
tract by the more insoluble bismuth 
compounds in the remedy, upon which 
are also dependent the mildly astrin- 
gent properties of the drug; that the 
drug is easy and pleasant to admin- 
ister in the convenient form in which 
k is £ut up (cachets of 15 grains 
each); and last, but not least, in 
importance, that its action is excep- 
tionally prompt. 
The sedative and anti-emetic prop- 
erties of the remedy were nicely dem- 
onstrated in a case of alcoholic gas- 
tritis. In this patient there was per- 
sistent vomiting and retching, a 
heavily coated tongue, a fetid breath, 
and obstinate constipation. As the 
stomach immediately rejected all food 
and medicine, that organ was allowed 
to remain perfectly at rest for twenty- 
four hours, not even water being 
given by mouth. As the vomiting 
still persisted to a moderate degree at 
the expiration of that time a combi- 
nation of dilute hydrocyanic acid, 
cerium oxalate, and bismuth subcar- 
J. J. Reilly, A.M., M.D. 
Bellevue Hospital, 
(Fordham Branch), 
New York City, July 25, 1898. 
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